Red Pepper Quilts on Etsy

Follow RPQ on INSTAGRAM

FACEBOOK

Google+ Followers

Translate

Follow by Email

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

The Liberty Lifestyle collection is a new range of standard quilting (and crafting) cotton by Liberty of London. The first collection ~ Bloomsbury Gardens ~ consists of five different color palettes and eleven prints. A total of 55 prints (not all pictured here).

Bloomsbury Gardens is an eclectic mix of prints and colors inspired by the historic district of London, an area well known for it's beautiful garden squares and historic architecture.

Bloomsbury Gardens is scheduled to arrive in stores in August. (Watch this space for updates)

Sunday, July 29, 2012

First up, a little Spoonflower stashing! Spoonfloweris
a custom fabric printing service, which allows you to upload your own
textile designs, printing only what you need on fabric weight of your
choice. You can also purchase fabrics designed by other Spoonflower
community members.

These three designs are by Kajsa Wikman, digitally printed by Spoonflower on Robert Kaufman Kona cotton. I adore these prints! See all of Kajsa designs here:Spoonflower: Syko

Karen is a self taught designer and hand screen printer of fabric. I adore Karen's simple and geometric designs! All designs are printed on beautiful quality linen with water based paint and heat set to make it washable.

I am always on the look out for these special prints; a unique - and highlight - fabric to feature in a quilt and at the same time support emerging businesses and designers with fresh and modern ideas.

From the width of the background (black fabric) cut a strip - or multiple strips - 2 ¾inches (2.75 inches) wide. With the 60 degree triangle ruler, and alternating with a standard straight ruler, cross-cut the strip as pictured at regular intervals. Precision is not so important, although keep the angle correct. I used 2 yards of Robert Kaufman Kona Cotton in Pepper for my Butterfly Quilt, more than I had first anticipated.

Let's get started:

Place the 60 degree Triangle Ruler so the bottom left and bottom right hand corners of the Butterfly Wing fabric are exactly on the outer edge of the triangle ruler (as pictured above). I have placed some tape on the down-side of my ruler to assist with quick placement; the top edge of the tape abuts the bottom edge of the fabric.

Trim with rotary cutter.

Using a ¼ inch seam allowance sew the background fabric to the Butterfly Wings

Press seams:

Trim these units as follows:

Place a standard ruler along the outer edge of the Butterfly Wing as pictured. (Please bear with me here as I am left-handed, and use a left handed ruler - the numbers on your ruler probably run from right to left). This unit needs to be trimmed to just 4 ½ inches wide; accurate piecing will result in 1/8th inch of background (black fabric) on BOTH SIDES of the outer edge of the Butterfly Wing unit):

Trim the side and top edge with rotary cutter:

Turn the Butterly Wing unit around and align the outer right edge (or the left if you are using a right handed ruler) of the unit at the 4 ½ inch mark of the ruler, and the bottom edge of the Butterfly Wing unit at the 2 1/8 inch line of the ruler (as pictured below):

Once you've pieced a few Butterfly Wings you will begin notice the consistent stop and start points of the background fabric: see the top edge of the ruler at 1 3/8 inches and 3 1/8 inches, as indicated by the red arrows (above).

Using a scant¼inch seam allowance sew the body of the Butterfly (the text fabric) first to one wing. Trim excess body fabric. Then sew the body to the opposite wing. Press seams together towards the body, away from the wings.

The butterfly Block measures 4 ½ inches x 4 ½ inches. If you find that your block is on the small side, be sure to cut a little more generous (particularly the Butterfly Wings - cut a slightly generous 2 1/8 inch wide).

Repeat times 180!

Any questions? Please leave your questions in the comments section and I will reply there as others may also benefit from further clarification.

Monday, July 23, 2012

180 Butterfly Blocks pieced together and quilted, but not without frustration. The seam intersections are bulky but no more so than expected when sewing together patchwork blocks. My fancy sewing machine was not impressed and once again the Juki - straight stitch only - machine came to the rescue.

I also agonized over the quilting. With so many different contrasting fabrics, quite a lot of it black and some of it light/white, I couldn't decided on what color thread that I would be happy to see on the quilt. I am not much of a fan of dark quilting lines on a light fabric, and vice versa.

And so, I decided to ditch-stitch the quilt. All of the seam lines surrounding each Butterfly Block have been ditch stitched. It was slow going but not difficult. (All of the images in this blog post are of the finished quilt). Quilting detail wasn't necessary for this already interesting and busy quilt. I am really happy with the result. The quilt is not heavily quilted and the look of the quilt has been preserved.

For the back of the quilt I have used a Flea Market Fancy print - Dotted Leaf in Gray. A favorite!

A traditional RPQ binding:

I've got a lot of pictures, please bear with me ...

This quilt is for sale! Paypal only (major credit cards accepted) - use drop-down menu below to choose correct shipping destination. Please don't hesitate to email me if you have any questions: EMAIL redpepperquilts@gmail.com

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Four different 1 yard panels each with four different coordinating prints.

Sixteen fat quarters in total.

I have a clear favorite ~ love the blues and greys:

DS Quilts collections are available from Joann Stores in the USA and Spotlight in Australia (although I haven't yet been able to confirm an arrival date of Quilter's Quarters at Spotlight). I purchased my stash@ Etsy.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Admittedly, it was a whole lot more fabric-play, cutting, sewing and pressing than I had anticipated. A lengthy process but so worthwhile ... cut, cut, cut, sew, sew, sew, repeat, repeat x 180

I don't mind the repetitive nature of this kind of patchwork piecing, working in batches, selecting and cutting fabric, and then chain piecing 30+ Butterfly blocks at time. I can be quite a productive and content process worker, especially in wee small hours of the morning.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Another obsession. Text prints. I have quite an obsession with text prints: numbers, letters, words, newspaper prints (see also Sunday Stash #87), and it helps to stash them rather than search for them when you need them as they are not always that easy to find. Another good excuse reason to collect fabric. It's a collection, right?

Friday, July 13, 2012

A new project, one that has been on my ever growingMust make this quilt one day! list for a while; long enough to have found a copy of the book in which the quilt is featured and page through endlessly:

Japanese Craft Book ISBN4-579-11039-0

Kumiko Fujita Quilts from Quilter's Studio

Kumiko's work, fabric and books are devoured by many patchworkers and quilters. My mind has been preoccupied with this "Butterfly" quilt (as featured on the back cover of the book); collecting Japanese fabrics and text prints over time.

The one thing holding me back was the fact that my book is written entirely in Japanese. Determined to conquer this Butterfly Block I photocopied the draft pattern of the finished block from the book (no templates provided) and started paper piecing each unit. Paper piecing is accurate, but fiddly and time consuming (and messy!).

Once I had paper pieced a few blocks, I deconstructed the pieces and was able to figure out a simple rotary cutting and machine piecing method. Quicker and just as accurate.

Many more blocks are yet to be made, but whilst I am enjoying choosing each fabric, and watching the quilt grow I will continue to happily plod along.